NeueWut was massively promoted in Germany by left-wing unionists and even by some independent left-wing intellectuals. People claimed it were a touching documentary of social protest inspiring hope and courage.
You could not be farther from the truth. What is shown is mostly hopeless blundering of people who have little or no experience in political activism and who mostly lack any theoretical background. Those people largely show courage and hope, but that makes the obvious futility of their efforts only harder to bear. Still worse, several of the main characters are on the verge of lunacy and should care about their mental stability and maturity rather than trying to become politicians - experience shows the kind of badly directed protest such people develop will sooner or later drift off to right-wing extremism.
If at least the film-maker would depict his characters with some basic respect... Instead, he hands them in to ridiculousness by exposing their utterly private weaknesses and mental disorders to the general public. This should not be done to any human beings, even if they must be criticized for misdirected political activism.
The social movement of the "Montagsdemonstrationen" (monday manifestations) in Germany truly lacked political maturity, theoretical foundation and clarity of political objectives. But this film picks out some its worst aspects, drawing a misleading caricature of what happened on the streets during those months of activism. There were hopeful approaches to grass root democracy and countless other nice aspects to this social movement that could have been described - had the film-maker been seriously interested in the progress of social equality and freedom. Instead, the message of this film amounts to the following arrogant insolence: In post-modern times, political activism against right-wing libertarian rollback is nothing but the despicable and absurd hobby of manic losers.
After viewing the film in a self-governing sociocultural youth center in Heidelberg that is rather famous for its brilliant selection of little known to unknown political films (and which was crowded to the brim with nearly twenty people on that evening), i felt utterly depressed. If the political culture of Germany were what this film will make us think, we could as well commit suicide now.
If you know anything about social movements in Germany, don't waste your time on this one. If you don't know much about Germany yet, don't let this film form your prejudices.
You could not be farther from the truth. What is shown is mostly hopeless blundering of people who have little or no experience in political activism and who mostly lack any theoretical background. Those people largely show courage and hope, but that makes the obvious futility of their efforts only harder to bear. Still worse, several of the main characters are on the verge of lunacy and should care about their mental stability and maturity rather than trying to become politicians - experience shows the kind of badly directed protest such people develop will sooner or later drift off to right-wing extremism.
If at least the film-maker would depict his characters with some basic respect... Instead, he hands them in to ridiculousness by exposing their utterly private weaknesses and mental disorders to the general public. This should not be done to any human beings, even if they must be criticized for misdirected political activism.
The social movement of the "Montagsdemonstrationen" (monday manifestations) in Germany truly lacked political maturity, theoretical foundation and clarity of political objectives. But this film picks out some its worst aspects, drawing a misleading caricature of what happened on the streets during those months of activism. There were hopeful approaches to grass root democracy and countless other nice aspects to this social movement that could have been described - had the film-maker been seriously interested in the progress of social equality and freedom. Instead, the message of this film amounts to the following arrogant insolence: In post-modern times, political activism against right-wing libertarian rollback is nothing but the despicable and absurd hobby of manic losers.
After viewing the film in a self-governing sociocultural youth center in Heidelberg that is rather famous for its brilliant selection of little known to unknown political films (and which was crowded to the brim with nearly twenty people on that evening), i felt utterly depressed. If the political culture of Germany were what this film will make us think, we could as well commit suicide now.
If you know anything about social movements in Germany, don't waste your time on this one. If you don't know much about Germany yet, don't let this film form your prejudices.
